Staywarm increase for pensioner father

funkedclav

Hi,

My father has been with Staywarm now for 3 years. He is 65 and also lives with someone under 60. It is classed as a two bedroomed house by Staywarm and in the last 12 months he has been paying £69.91 a month.

He has just received a letter today stating that he is using far more than the 'average' user and on that basis Staywarm is now increasing his bill by 39% to £97.74. How can Staywarm come to an average user level. My father is'nt very mobile and spends most of the time in the house. Obviously this is going to be different to somebody who is over 60 and still active, thus not using as much elec/gas in the day.

Should we complain and try and get a decrease, or give it up and look somewhere else. If so, can anybody recommend a company to look at?

Thanks in advance

Gary

wowsavings

Hi

Martin has written an article for people on Staywarm:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1155839695,91475

wills34

Staywarm have started to class anyone who uses over 28000kWh per annum as a high user. This is based on Ofgem guidelines. I would recommend you find out what your father used last year in kWh for gas and elec and then perhaps someone could work out if someone could lower his direct debit costs. Beware of Staywarm this is going to be happening a lot!

funkedclav

Well, after calling Staywarm, it appears they did'nt take into account his disability income, which lowers his bill, and apparently Powergen are lowering the price in the next few weeks. The customer service advisor said it would probaly end up being back down to what he was paying before after the cuts. It's now down to £80, so hopefully the cuts will see that go further down towards the original payment.

Thanks

Gary

kevinyork

Where someone is on additional benefits Staywarm will keep them on the lowest tariff for life if they wish. However they do not seem too proactive in telling people this.

My Mums renewal came through, up from £68 to £160! She is a high user I know and we were expecting this. I called Staywarm, said that the price was obviously too high and what was the procedure for switching. They advised they could put her on their standard Powergen tariff until the switch went through to another supplier but she would need to call on the renewal date to effect the switch their standard tariff.

We arranged a move to Scottish Power and meanwhile the tariff increase date came so I called them to move her to their standard tariff in the meantime. The girl asked why she was moving and I explained it was because of the increase. She asked if she was on benefits and I said she was (she is on DLA) to which she replied that she is entitled to the lowest Staywarm Tariff for life and didnt need to switch!

As the 14 day period for cancellation for the switch to Scottish Power had passed neither could cancel the move. I asked to speak to a Supervisor and complained that had we been told when we first enquired about moving from Staywarm that she could stay on their lowest tariff we would not have moved and instead she now had to pay a higher price with Scottish Power until she could be switched back to Staywarm again! The supervisor agreed we should have been asked about other benefits and has promised to refund the difference between what Scottish Power will charge for the short period she is with them until moving back and what Staywarm would have charged for the same period!

Whilst its good that Staywarm have this provision for those on benefits we didnt know about it. Couldnt they include a section in their renewal letters to say to people about this rather than put those on benefits through unecessary stress! If I had not been lucky enough to speak to a different , and very helpful, lady when I called the second time I would never have foudn out and Mum would have moved supplier and been paying much more than she would on Staywarm's lowest tariff.

Biggles

At no point do Staywarm tell you this information.

Is it set out anywhere exactly what benefits they allow for this purpose and what their 'lowest tariff' might be? (I get the impression their 'tariffs' are made up as they go along at the moment, partly with the intention of deterring as many high users as possible).

margaretclare

I've read Martin's article, I've read a lot of posts about Staywarm, I've been urged many times by different people that 'you should be on Staywarm, oh you're not on Staywarm, why aren't you, it's to help people in your age-group'......The arguments go: 'you pay a fixed amount each month, it's not based on the amount you use, you don't have to worry about big bills coming in' etc etc. To me, that takes away my ability to control what I use and what I spend, and puts all the control into the hands of a faceless organisation which, as Martin's article shows, can move the goalposts at any time.

Given all that I've read and heard about Staywarm, it's a mystery to me why anyone would bother with it.

Margaret

chas1937

Just phoned Staywarm about my tarriff which rose at end of January.By coming on here and reading all the posts it helped me to get in touch with them as I,m on Attendance Allowance.The person I spoke too took all the details and said that means I,d be on lowest tarriff for life.When I asked if the prices would be coming down in line with others he said they would be in touch soon about that.Going back too kevinyorks post I had lot of problems last year between Staywarm and Scottish Power and true to their word Staywarm paid me all the money back that I was due to the mix up.Had too keep at them but I did get it all back.I think it helps if you get a csa that knows what their talking about as some are totally useless

kpa_2

I used to work for Powergen and had to deal with SW quite a bit one way or another (mostly complaints). Unless it has changed recently most major income and disability benefits qualify you for the lower tariffs-

DLA
Attendance Allowance (but not carers allowance)
Pension credit/Income Support
Housing benefit
Council Tax benefit (but not the single occupancy reduction)
Income based jobseekers allowance
There was some confusion about Working tax credit and Child tax credit but the last time I dealt with it I was assured they do qualify.
The main one not included is incapacity benefit. Or state pension, if that isn't obvious!

I once specifically dealt with someone asking why he had not been made aware of the benefit rule- according to a sales agent they are always asked at the point of contract but "there isn't much they can do if the customer lies or refuses to answer". I don't think it is made clear why they ask that though. I always had the impression that Powergen would like to do away with SW but couldn't because of the bad press involved.

One tip I would give is make sure you know the name of your benefit. In more than one case, customers stating they received "mobility benefit" were turned down because the sales agents aren't given specific training on benefits and didn't realise it should have been classed as DLA.